The first general American military
draft was
enacted by the Confederate government on
April 16,
1862,
more than a year before the federal
government did
the same. The Confederacy took this step
because it
had
to; its territory was being assailed on
every front
by overwhelming numbers, and the
defending armies
needed
men to fill the ranks. The
compulsory-service law
was very unpopular in the South because
it was
viewed as a
usurpation of the rights of individuals
by the
central government, one of the reasons
the South
went to war
in the first place.

Under the Conscription Act, all healthy
white men
between the ages of 18 and 35 were
liable for a
three year
term of service. The act also extended
the terms of
enlistment for all one-year soldiers to
three years.
A September 1862 amendment raised the
age limit to
45, and February 1864, the limits were
extended to
range
between 17 and 50. Exempted from the
draft were men
employed in certain occupations
considered to be
most
valuable for the home front, such as
railroad and
river workers, civil officials,
telegraph operators,
miners,
druggists and teachers. On October 11,
the
Confederate Congress amended the draft
law to exempt
anyone who
owned 20 or more slaves. Further, until
the
practice was abolished in December 1863,
a rich
drafted man could
hire a substitute to take his place in
the ranks,
an unfair practice that brought on
charges of class
discrimination.

Many Southerners, including the
governors of Georgia
and North Carolina, were vehemently
opposed to the
draft
and worked to thwart its effect in
their states.
Thousands of men were exempted by the
sham addition
of their
names to the civil servant rolls or by
their
enlistment in the state militias.
Ninety-two percent
of all
exemptions for state service came from
Georgia and
North Carolina.